Chocolope: The Strain That Actually Tasted Like Chocolate

Chocolope: The Strain That Actually Tasted Like Chocolate This video explains the full history of Chocolope, the DNA Genetics sativa bred in Amsterdam to recreate the chocolate and coffee flavor of the nearly extinct landrace strain Chocolate Thai. Chocolate Thai was a landrace sativa that reached America during the 1970s and 1980s and became known for a roasted cocoa and coffee character that almost no other cannabis had. It faded out because it was extremely difficult to grow, and by the modern era the original was considered gone. In 2007, DNA Genetics released Chocolope, a cross of Chocolate Thai and Cannalope Haze designed to keep the old flavor while fixing everything that made the original impractical. This video covers the landrace it was chasing, the breeders who chased it, how the cross was built, and what Chocolope actually tastes and feels like compared to the reputation around it. What's covered in this video: Chocolate Thai was a landrace sativa from Thailand that reached the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, often arriving as Thai sticks with buds tied onto small sticks. The strain's cocoa and roasted character came largely from terpenes like beta-caryophyllene and humulene, the same compounds found in black pepper and hops. Much of the supply reached America through returning soldiers and traveling surfers who brought it back from Southeast Asia. Breeder DJ Short, the person behind Blueberry, described Chocolate Thai first-hand as having a deep roasted coffee color and a coffee-chocolate aroma he called heavenly. The video separates the real qualities of Chocolate Thai from the romanticized version, noting that curing and drying likely shaped a lot of the remembered flavor. The old claim that Thai sticks were dipped in opium is addressed and treated as mostly a myth. Chocolate Thai disappeared because it flowered slowly, yielded poorly, and was unstable, which made it a bad fit as growing shifted toward faster indicas grown indoors. DNA Genetics was founded by Don Morris and Aaron Yarkoni, two Los Angeles growers who moved to Amsterdam in 2003 with a reported two hundred dollars between them. DNA Genetics went on to win a large number of Cannabis Cups and released influential strains including LA Confidential, Kosher Kush, and Tangie. The revival worked by crossing a Chocolate Thai with Cannalope Haze, a Haze-lineage hybrid carrying Mexican and Colombian roots. Cannalope Haze contributed an eight to nine week flowering window, much larger yields, a sweet melon note, and myrcene-heavy terpenes. The strain was developed internally under the name D-Line before being released commercially as Chocolope, a combination of Chocolate and Cannalope. Chocolope arrived around 2007 and stood out in a market dominated by skunk, gas, and kush profiles. The flavor is described honestly as coffee, cocoa, earthy sweetness, and melon, closer to mocha than to a candy bar, with intensity varying by plant, grow, and cure. Many growers report getting little chocolate from their plants while others get a pronounced chocolate-dipped flavor. As a plant, Chocolope grows tall, stretchy, and lanky with long fluffy colas rather than tight indica nuggets. The effect is roughly ninety-five percent sativa and five percent indica, producing an uplifting, cerebral, creative high often compared to coffee and used for daytime or wake-and-bake. THC typically tests in the mid-teens to low twenties, and the strain can feel racy or heady for people sensitive to strong sativas. Chocolope won High Times Strain of the Year in 2007 and picked up multiple Cannabis Cup placements. The release mattered because it preserved a functional daytime sativa style at a moment when the market was moving toward heavy indica hybrids and dessert flavors. Chocolope was later used in crosses such as Chocolope Kush, which added a heavier indica body to the chocolate profile. Today Chocolope is treated as a modern classic and still appears on lists of the best sativas and wake-and-bake strains. Mentioned in this video: Chocolope, Chocolate Thai, Cannalope Haze, DNA Genetics, Don Morris, Aaron Yarkoni, DJ Short, Blueberry, LA Confidential, Kosher Kush, Tangie, Chocolope Kush, D-Line, High Times Strain of the Year, Cannabis Cup, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Thailand, Southeast Asia, Mexico, Colombia, Thai sticks, landrace cannabis, beta-caryophyllene, humulene, myrcene, Haze genetics, sativa, indica, THC.